The months have slipped away on me. It is all ready June and I have just realized that it has been a long while since I up dated my blog.


First up my lovely friend Jan S has had 2 Exhibitions in the month of May. One at Goombungee and the second at Gallon. Both Exhibitions were wonderful. Very clever lady.




 Crows Nest patchwork lady's had a day trip to Gatton to check out Jan's Exhibition. Every one was very impressed.

                                                            Jan with her leaf quilts

I have been trying to make my way through my UFO's  This one was a Mystery Quilt I started with Laurene and Lorain from the American Quilters magazine. The name of the quilt is "Rainbow Rotini" but I don't think that name goes with my quit. Will have to find a new name. Any ideas ?

 

Brake between UFO's and made this happy quilt. I won the fabric for "Jerry's Owl Quilt".

 

This Is the Back of my flower quilt. Lots of old fabric on the back.

I started this quilt many years ago, as you can see from the fabric. Very pleased to finish this UFO. The pattern is from a Aust Patchwork & Quilting magazine. The name is "Liquorice Allsorts". The flowers are all Hand Applique. I put it together quilt-as-you -go.  Used all the left over fabrics on the back.
Another empty box. Goodie goodie
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                                                        Circle Play Class

 I had a Circle Play class at Crows Nest. Had a wonderful lot of lady's in my class. We only had one day so the lady's learnt the technique for the blocks and got to make a few of the blocks up. Every one had lots of fun.
 Cant wait to see what all the quilts look like from this class.

                                                     Happy sewing until next time

Baby News

The first part of the year has been every exciting. Doug and I found out we are to be grandparents. What wonderful news. So most of my sewing has been based around babies and toddlers. Lots of new ideas since I was a young mum. The hardest is what to make first.

Found this cute little pattern for a change mat. Just had to make up 3. Its a great gift idea. I'm also a great Aunt so can't have too many gifts on hand. The mat folds up to this lovely bag.

Found all my Eye Spy fabric (and that was a bit of a job when everything is still packed from moving house)  Made a quilt for my great nephew.

This is the backing for Chase's Eye Spy quilt. I had to use up all the left over fabrics.

 The second Eye Spy quilt was made for a little Girl. A colour wash, light to dark. I still haven't put a very big dint in the eye spy stash.   Boy oh boy why have I got so much eye spy fabric.

I have had this Pattern and the pink fabrics in a box for many years. It jumped out at me a few weeks ago so I had to make it up. The pattern only had the 4 large blocks but I thought I would like it a little bigger so added the half blocks around the edge. Why you ask? Because the full size blocks would have been way too big and I didn't want to add borders or small blocks.

Sorry the photos are not the best. 

 

The second exciting news is that I have this wonderful new Baby Lock Evolution to work with. What a fantastic machine. If you have a Baby Lock you will know what I mean. They can do so much.

 
After a few weeks of playing and getting the hang of what I can do on the Evolution (and I have only just scratched the surface) The first project I made was this little bag. Cute.

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How I have a the Baby Lock Evolution I can whip more baby gear for Megan and Mykel. Lots of fun sewing ahead.

2 Patterns to start the year

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We had a very quiet time with family. It is always great to spend the holidays catching up with everyone.
The new year has started and the first thing on the agenda is getting my two patterns out there. They are all done and just waiting to go to the printer.
Jane and I had a fun day trying to be photographers, or I should say I was, Jane was doing a pretty good job. ( I was the set designer!)

Circle Play is my first pattern. I have been teaching this as a class for a few years now and have been repeatedly asked for the pattern so now I can say I have one. This pattern also has a curved template set to go with it.

The second pattern is "Blue Diamond" I love this quilt. It looks good in so many different colour ways. Plus it is a great way to use up a bit of your stash.

Del had a busy day helping Jane and I. She was guarding the quilts, it's a wonder she wasn't laying all over them.  All the photos were taken in Pauline's garden.

This is the first "diamond" quilt I made. This one is a little different to the blue one.

        My two "Circle Play " quilts. The wind was working in our favour for this photo.

 

Jane the budding photographer. ( I only have a few snaps of Jane and every one she has a camera in hand).

The last few weeks we have been very busy sewing. One afternoon the power went out for 6 hours. In the first 3 hours we got to catch up on a little rest, bookwork, reading and cleaning up, that was enough for Pauline. She got Rob busy setting up the generator so we could get back to the sewing machines. Spotlights and all. No stopping this lady.  We were sewing by spotlight and had tea by candle light, what could be better.

Rob and Pauline are back on the road, Jane and Gerry are busy in the office and I am off to Melbourne for a few days.
Happy sewing until next time.

Busy end of year

 Christmas has arrived way to soon, where has the year gone ?  Only seems like it was the new year yesterday.

The last month has been very busy for mum and I with markets. We had a trip to Emerald for the craft fair, then back for the Toowoomba Bush Christmas and then on to Narrabri for the markets.  We had lots of fun but I am so glad it is all over and I can sit down and sew for a while.

                                           Almost packed up and ready to head for Emerald.

                                                             Emerald craft fair.

Early in the year I made a Diamond quilt from brown, yellow and orange fabric. I was asked if I would do it as a class or pattern. You will be happy to know that I have done it. This time with blue fabrics. Hense the name "Blue Diamonds"

                                                                                   I love it when I have a big stash of fabric for a quilt and by the end I only have a small scrap pile left. Great feeling to use up a few of  my beautiful fabrics. 

 Sorry about the photo. But you can get the idea of what it looks like, hopefully a better photo soon. I have made the quilt from 2 1/2"  to  6 1/2" diamonds.

 

Started an "I Spy" quilt for my great nephew. Have a few more to make after this one to catch up with the little people that have arrive. 

 I now have a full house. Jane arrived from Canada and then Pauline and Rob arrived home. So it is a bit of a mad house. The sewing has taken over the whole house. We are all very busy.

We have had a few storms in the last week. One night we lost power for 5 hours. But that didn't stop Pauline from sewing. Rob had the generator out and set up before we could complain too much. Sewing by spot light and tea by candle light.

 

Time to get back to the sewing. Lots to do before Christmas. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and new year.

 

 

My Quilt

I'm back at the house and I hope things will slow down a bit..I did have a great time while I was away. Went off to the Brisbane Quilt show plus the Stitches and Craft. Had a lot of fun helping Pauline and Rob on there stand "Quiltersworld"  I court up with lots of friends I haven't seen in awhile and a few I missed because we where so busy. Sorry if I didn't get to chat with you.

AND GUESS WHAT !!!!
I got a second with my quilt in the Professional Appliqued category and a Judges Choice from Michelle Marvig.
 I was so tickled. Also very pleased I had my friend Helen there to hold my hand.

 I made the quilt for my nephew Jeremey. For his 21th. Jerry drew the picture of the owl. He  is a tattoo artist. I asked for one of his drawing to put on his quilt and the owl is the one he picked.

                                              My winnings. Thank you Patches Indoorpilly

Exhibitions and Displays

Last week was packed with lots to look at. The Toowoomba quilters had there Exhibition  plus the Highfields quilt exhibition was also on. It was great to see so many quilts on display.

                              I had a few of my quilts hanging in the Highfielf exhibition.

"Diamonds for ever" is a quilt I have just finished. I send it up to Evol to quilt for me. Thank you Evol.     Love the colours in this quilt.

                                  2 of my older quilts on display. They all look so good when there hanging up.

 Cabarhab has a wonderful coffee / gift shop. The shop had a 2 days of Art in the Yard. Lots of lovely craft on display and for sale. I really love going to this little shop because it is overflowing with colour and inspiration. The trees are even full of colour and design.

                                                             Group of scarfs. Beautiful colours

I put the sewing away for a few days and got busy recovering a old chair and 2 stools. More colour. I'm having a wonderful time with all the colour around me. Cant wait to get out a new lot of fabric and start a new quilt. Wonder what the imagination is going to come up with.

 

 

Bye until next time, Happy stitching.

 

Colour and Free Form

I had a wonderful day out at my friend Jan's. First up the view from Jan's sewing room is to die for. To wake up to this each day and then to create and stitch with this scenery would be magic.

We had a creative time designing small free form quilts. There is a lovely story to go with the fabric used in the small quilts.. A group of us from Emerald lost our friend Robyn to cancer. Robyn gave a very large bag of homespun to Laurene  and she never new what to do with it all. After a workshop last year with Gwen Marston she come up with the lovely idea to give the fabric out to every one and they could make there own quilt in memory of Robyn. Jan and I have taken it one step more. We have made 7 small quilt for all the girls involved.

                                               2 quilts made by Jan on the day.

                                           3 little quilts I made on the day.

 
For the next few days I was busy making small quilts. I had a lovely time stitching and playing with all the colour and free form sewing. I do love the design fun and freedom you have with this type of stitching.